Description of the appearance of Romeo Montague. W. Shakespeare "Romeo and Juliet": description, heroes of the work. Several interesting essays

Juliet's lover. He committed suicide when he mistakenly believed that Juliet was dead.

The first literary work in which the images of Juliet and Romeo appeared was “The Newly Found History of Two Noble Lovers,” written by the Italian author Luigi da Porto and published in 1530. Most likely, the main source of inspiration for Shakespeare was the poem “The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet” (1562), written by Arthur Brooke.

For the first time, Romeo appears before readers as a man who is madly in love with Rosaline, Juliet's cousin. The girl is inaccessible to him, as she has taken a vow of celibacy. The suffering Romeo often walks alone before dawn. When daylight comes, he locks himself in his chambers and curtains the windows. In fact, this love cannot be called real. Both Romeo's feelings and his actions seem feigned, insincere, fictitious. The young man seems to revel in his suffering.

To see Rosaline, Romeo, wearing a mask, comes to the celebration at the Capulet house. Before entering, he predicts his own future. The young man says that the celebration will be “the beginning of untold disasters” and will ultimately bring him “a terrible, untimely death.” Despite such a gloomy prediction, Romeo decides to take a step towards his destiny. Seeing Juliet at the party, he instantly falls in love with her. Romeo understands that until now he had not seen true beauty and had not truly loved. A short conversation ensues between the young people, followed by a kiss.

Risking his life, at night Romeo comes to the Capulet garden, where Juliet confesses her love to him and proposes marriage. He happily agrees. Romeo's feelings are so strong that immediately after the date he hurries to Brother Lorenzo and persuades the monk to secretly marry him and Juliet on the same day. The clergyman agrees. Notice how determined Romeo becomes when he falls in love with Juliet. He behaved completely differently when he was supposedly in love with Rosaline. Then Romeo only sighed and suffered. Now the young man is actively acting.

Having married Juliet legally, Romeo begins to treat the girl’s relatives differently. Confronted with Tybalt, Juliet's cousin, he does not want to conflict with him:

But I, Tybalt, have a reason
To love you; she forgives you
All the fury of angry words...

Then Romeo tries to separate Tybalt, who is grappling with Mercutio, but he fails. Tragedy strikes: Tybalt mortally wounds Mercutio. Romeo is torn between his love for Juliet and his love for his friend. For Juliet's sake, Romeo should not have taken revenge on her relative. However, the young man makes a different choice - he follows the dictates of friendship and duty of honor. Acting under the impression of Mercutio's death, Romeo kills Tybalt. The act turns out to be fatal. The enmity between the houses of Montague and Capulet flares up with renewed vigor, and after his wedding with Juliet, Romeo sincerely wanted to end this war forever. In addition, the Count punishes Romeo, although not too harshly. The young man is not executed, but expelled from the city. True, parting with Juliet is like death for Romeo.

While in exile in Mantua, Romeo learns of Juliet's death, buys poison to poison himself and goes to Verona with the goal of committing suicide at his beloved's grave. In the Capulet crypt, he meets Paris, Juliet's official fiancé, who has come to mourn her. Paris provokes Romeo. Young people fight with swords. Romeo kills Paris, after which he drinks poison and dies.

The tragedy unfolds over just a few days. As literary critic A. A. Anikst noted, Romeo and Juliet are quick in their feelings. The measure of their experiences is not duration, but strength, and the passion of the lovers is great.

In this article we will look at the character of Shakespeare's play and give a description of Romeo. The well-known hero of a touching play about love carries a very great meaning not only within the work, but also within the entire literature of William Shakespeare.

About the play

Speaking about such a famous work of world classical literature, it should be noted that we really know little about it. The only thing that remains a known fact for everyone is that the plot centers on two fifteen-year-old teenagers in love. The names of these two lovers are used in many works of art today. The first of these creations was Luigi da Porto's play “The Story of Two Noble Lovers,” which was published in 1524.

All the events of the play take place in the city of Verona. The plot became very popular during the Renaissance. Today we say that the work generally characterizes the morals of that time. In 1554, the story “Romeo and Juliet”, authored by Matteo Bandello, was published, and only a few years later William Shakespeare would create his work, which would turn the story of two lovers into a great and world-famous tragedy.

Plot of the play

In order to give a correct description of Romeo and Juliet, it is first worth remembering the plot of the work.

The play begins with a fight between two servants who serve two noble and warring families - the Capulets and the Montagues.

At this moment Romeo appears. He is very sad that his love for the beautiful girl Rosaline is unrequited. His friends decide to have fun and persuade Romeo to go to the ball hosted by the Capulet family. Romeo agrees. At the ball he meets the charming Juliet. Feelings immediately appear between the young people. Only after a while do the lovers learn that their families are warring parties.

Speaking about the characterization of Romeo, it should be noted that the guy acts very boldly and bravely when he does not give up his love, despite the fact that the girl is the daughter of his father’s mortal enemy.

One night, Romeo comes to Juliet and confesses his love to her. Juliet does not hide her feelings, after which the lovers make vows to each other and decide to get married secretly. They trust a monk they know, who agrees to the terms of secrecy. However, everything does not go as planned: Romeo has a strong fight with Juliet's brother and, in a fit of rage, kills him. The guy is expelled from the city.

Tragic death

While Romeo is in exile, Juliet is being prepared for marriage to a mature and wealthy man. She again comes to the monk for help. He gives her a potion, after drinking which the girl will fall asleep for two days. According to the plan, everyone close to Juliet should have thought that the girl had died. This is exactly what the heroine does.

Romeo hears rumors that his beloved was poisoned and died. He did not know that Juliet's death was just a cunning plan. Romeo goes to the Capulet crypts to say goodbye to his beloved forever. Beside himself with grief, Romeo meets Juliet's fiancé and kills him. Immediately after this, the guy takes his own life by drinking poison.

Juliet, awakening from sleep, sees the dead body of her beloved. She is confused. The girl realizes that now she has no reason to continue living, and plunges the blade into her heart, thereby setting off after her beloved Romeo.

After the death of very young lovers, two warring families understand the meaninglessness of their confrontation. The war between them ends.

Characteristics of the main character

Let's start characterizing Romeo with the fact that from the very beginning William Shakespeare portrays his main character as a very inexperienced and stupid young man. Romeo gave himself entirely to his passion for the selfish beauty Rosaline, thinking that this was the love of his life. The guy's friends do not approve of this choice, realizing that this is not love at all, but only imaginary feelings that Romeo himself invented because he was bored and lonely. The boy is so young that he invents his own love. Looking at this characterization of Romeo, we can say that the guy needed these feelings for self-affirmation. Having won the icy and unapproachable heart of Rosalina, Romeo was able to consider himself a hero who conquered a mountain of unprecedented height. In this way he would raise his authority and begin to appear much higher than he actually is.

Meeting true love

Seeing how the hero falls in love with Juliet, we can already give a completely different characterization of Romeo. Now all falsehood is leaving the life of the main character. Romeo's characterization will now be distinguished by the sincerity of feelings, their authenticity. The young man is devoted to his love. In Shakespeare's work, the characterization of Romeo, as we see, changes dramatically. What is striking is how sensitive the young boy is, capable of loving so deeply. If we talk about the characteristics of Romeo and Juliet as a single whole, then it will be important to say that the lovers are very tender. Both of them are true to their choice. Despite all the sensitivity that their hearts have, they were able to resist their families for a very long time in order to save their love.

The Dark Side of Romeo

It is worth noting the other side in Romeo’s brief description: he is hot-tempered and vindictive. He avenged his friend's death by brutally killing Juliet's brother. And when he found out that Juliet had died, he put an end to her fiancé, who was generally an innocent person in this situation.

In addition, despite all the prohibitions, Romeo came to the city. Naturally, one can understand the meaning of the young man’s return - he only wanted to say goodbye forever to the love of his life. But being in extremely serious condition, Romeo still killed another person.

Finally

Studying Shakespeare's work, it is difficult to call him a moralist. In none of his creations does he show heroes as positive or negative characters. In addition, he does not focus on appearance. For William, it was much more important to show the life path of his characters, which always contained a certain tragedy. This tragedy, as a rule, consisted of the temptation to surrender to all passions and desires. This is exactly what the image of Romeo became: an exalted soul, unable to resist temptations.

(See analysis of the work in the notebook)

Romeo Montague - one of the main characters of the tragedy. At the beginning of the play, he is a young man who is completely absorbed by a far-fetched passion for Rosalind, a quarrelsome and unapproachable beauty. R. speaks of his love for her with the bitterness and cynicism of a youth: “What is love? Madness from fumes, playing with fire, leading to fire.” However, R. stubbornly continues to seek reciprocity from Rosalind, although all his friends do not approve of his choice. Everything suggests that R.’s passion is artificial, that he invented an object for worship. Why? Most likely, for the reason that nothing in the surrounding reality attracts him. He is indifferent to the enmity between the Montague and Capulet families, the thirst for victory over the enemy is alien to him, and murder is abhorrent to him.

He is a hot-tempered, amorous, passionate, and at the same time a noble and fair young man, he is almost twenty years old, and feelings are constantly boiling in his heart. When he passionately fell in love with Juliet, and gradually realized that everything that was happening between them was very serious and difficult, how many difficulties and obstacles stood in their way, he turned from a young womanizer into a sincerely loving one and always ready for absolutely any feat for the sake of his beloved young man. For Juliet, Romeo is “the height of perfection”; she fell in love with him at first sight and forever.

At the beginning of the work, Romeo is very naive, in love with a certain Rosalind, from which he suffers greatly. We never meet this girl throughout the play.

Around Romeo there are guys like him (Mercutio, Benvolio). Romeo spends his time as it should be in these times: idly wandering around, doing nothing and sighing languidly. From the very beginning, Juliet is presented as a clean and neat girl, alluring with the charm of her blossoming youth. She stands out not only for this, but in her one can also notice a childish depth of thinking and a tragic sense of existence.

Romeo, having fallen head over heels in love with Juliet, gradually realizes that everything that happens between them is very serious and difficult, how many difficulties and obstacles stand in their way. He, as it were, grows up to her, from a young womanizer turns into a passionately loving and ready to do anything for the sake of his love, “not a boy, but a husband.” Their love becomes not only a violation of family foundations, but also a challenge to the centuries-old tradition of hatred, the hatred because of which numerous Montagues and Capulets died, on which almost the state laws of Verona rested.

And hatred is painful and tenderness.

And hatred and tenderness are the same ardor

Blind forces that emerged from nothing,

Empty burden, heavy fun,

A discordant collection of slender forms,

Cold heat, mortal health,

Sleepless sleep, which is deeper than sleep.

This is what it is, and worse than ice and stone,

My love, which is hard for me.

Aren't you laughing?

Juliet Capulet - one of the central characters of the tragedy. D. is shown at the moment of transition from the naive self-sufficiency of a child, who knows no doubts that the world around her may be different, to the maturity of a woman in love, capable of sacrificing everything for the sake of her beloved. At the beginning of the play, D. is an obedient and loving daughter; her parents are the highest authority for her, the embodiment of wisdom, goodness and justice. In her life there is and cannot be a place for self-affirmation, which at the beginning of the play Romeo, in love with Rosalind, is obsessed with, for the subordinate position of a woman in her father’s house excludes any external activity.

The main heroine of the tragedy is Juliet Capulet, a fourteen-year-old carefree girl who, despite her young age, has a childish depth of thinking. She is rich in both internal and external beauty, constantly beckons and enchants with her blossoming youth. The heroine is presented as a pure, well-mannered and intelligent lady who is constantly surrounded by the love of caring noble parents, a cousin to whom she is strongly attached and a friend - the Nurse, to whom she entrusts all her girlish secrets. Juliet lives in complete prosperity, but does not think about marriage, but in the depths of her soul she dreams of meeting her prince. She always submits to the will of her parents and never dares to contradict them.

The relationship between these two young hearts becomes not only a violation of family rules and norms, but also a challenge to the entire centuries-old tradition of hatred, that hatred, because of which numerous people from the Montague and Capulet families, on whom almost all state laws of Verona rested, died.

The story of this tragic love story is as old as the world, and at the same time, it will never cease to be relevant. The relevance of the story “Romeo and Juliet” today, especially taking into account all the events taking place, is unusually great. There are eternal themes of life - betrayal, love, happiness, respect, devotion, hatred, the struggle between good and evil, death, grief, sadness and joy, also strife, revenge and war. And the fact that the main characters chose to leave this unfair world, in which everyone was against their love, will forever remain in the hearts of billions of people. Shakespeare's heroes are quite young, but the depth of the feelings that struck them makes them mature not in their years, but in their actions. Romeo and Juliet have always been and will forever remain an example of devotion and eternal love for everyone, because these are two beautiful souls who are capable of sincere and strong feelings that cannot be realized, they are honest in showing their feelings in front of nature and, most importantly, in front of each other. Yes, in the end, the love of Romeo and Juliet survived their death and accomplished what seemed impossible - it reconciled two warring families, but at what cost! By their death, lovers seem to gain the victory of the principles of life - the principles of peace, goodness, harmony, justice, friendship and love. The loss of their children forces the Montagues and Capulets to realize that with their senseless enmity they have destroyed the lives of their children and themselves. Despite this, even after dying, two loving hearts remained inseparable, and this is the whole triumph of life and sincere human feelings.

A girl of thirteen years old, lover of Romeo Montague. At the end of the tragedy, she committed suicide when she saw that Romeo was dead.

The images of Romeo and Juliet first appeared in literature in the work “The Newly Found History of Two Noble Lovers,” written by the Italian author Luigi da Porto and published in 1530. As for Shakespeare, the main source of inspiration for the British playwright was, most likely, Arthur Brooke's poem “The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet” (1562).

At the beginning of the play, Juliet appears as a sweet girl who is submissive to her mother. Despite the fact that the heroine will only turn 14 in a couple of weeks, she already has a fiancé. Paris, a handsome young man and relative of Escalus, Duke of Verona, wants to marry her legally. Juliet agrees to meet him without any problems. Their meeting should take place at a festival organized by the Capulet. Instead of Paris, Juliet meets Romeo and immediately falls in love with him. At first she doesn't know who she fell in love with. At the same time, the strength of the girl’s feelings is amazing. Juliet says that if her lover is married, then “the grave will be her marriage bed.”

In the famous scene in the Capulet garden, Juliet, not knowing that Romeo can hear her, confesses her love to him. She asks him to renounce his own name and is ready to do the same herself. When Romeo gives himself away, the first proof of love that Juliet demands from him is agreement to immediately get married. Without this, the girl does not need further relationships. She cannot imagine love that is not sealed by marriage.

Initially, Juliet was sure that the enmity between the Montagues and the Capulets was an obstacle that could be easily overcome. Montague is just a name for her. If Romeo had been called differently, then all his “lovely virtues” would remain. Unfortunately, Juliet cannot stay away from the family feuds. When she learns that Romeo killed Tybalt, she is at first overcome with anger. Anger and love fight in her soul. The girl calls Romeo “a fiend with an angelic face,” “a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” “a dragon in a charming guise,” “a saint and a scoundrel in one flesh.” After a short struggle, love wins - the individual turns out to be stronger than the family. Juliet forgives Romeo, and before he leaves Verona for exile, they spend the night together.

In the morning, Juliet’s mother comes to her and reports that in a few days the girl is destined to marry Paris. Juliet refuses. The father joins the mother. He is not very interested in his daughter's feelings. It is important for him to marry Juliet to Paris, whom he considers a worthy man, as soon as possible. A parent angry at his daughter’s disobedience calls her a “dissolute girl,” “a disobedient creature,” and so on. As a result, he threatens to kick Juliet out of the house if she refuses the wedding. Signora Capulet does not spare her daughter either.

Juliet turns to her brother Lorenzo for help. At the same time, she is determined - if the wedding with Paris cannot be avoided, then there is only one way out for her - to commit suicide. The priest offers another option - drink a potion that will make Juliet appear dead for 42 hours. She will be buried in the Capulet family crypt. Romeo, summoned by brother Lorenzo, will arrive there, and together the lovers will go to Mantua. Juliet agrees. The priest worries that “female fear” and “indecision” may prevent her from bringing such a bold plan to life, but the girl, casting aside all doubts, drinks the potion. Due to a tragic set of circumstances, Brother Lorenzo's plan does not work. Juliet, seeing Romeo commit suicide, stabs himself to death with his dagger.

We all know this classic hero of the famous work of William Shakespeare as an unhappy fifteen-year-old boy in love. “There is no sadder story in the world than the story of Romeo and Juliet...” The names of these two lovers were first used by Luigi da Porto in 1524 in his play “The Story of Two Noble Lovers.” The events took place in Verona. This plot became so popular during the Renaissance that in 1554 Matteo Bandello would write a short story, in 1562 Arthur Brooke would write the poem “Romeo and Juliet,” and Shakespeare would take this story as a basis and create his world-famous tragedy.

Plot of the story

The main character appears on the scene immediately after a short fight between two servants of the warring noble families of Montague and Capulet in the city of Verona. Romeo Montague is sad and melancholy, he experiences feelings of unrequited love for Rosaline. In order to have some fun, Benvolio and Mercutio's friends persuade him to secretly go with them under masks to the Capulets' masquerade ball. As a result, Romeo is recognized and he leaves the ball, but during this time he manages to see the owner’s daughter, Juliet. They fall in love with each other at first sight, and only then find out that both belong to families that are mortal enemies.

And here, discussing the topic: “Romeo: characteristics of a hero,” it should be noted that the young man turned out to be very brave and persistent. One night he comes under Juliet's balcony and confesses his love to her. Young lovers take an oath of love and fidelity and want to get married secretly. They entrust this task to a friend, Friar Lorenzo. But then an unexpected event occurs: Romeo kills Tybalt, Juliet's brother. Romeo is expelled from Verona.

Death of Lovers

At this time, Juliet's parents are preparing her for her wedding to Paris. She is forced to ask for help from Friar Lorenzo, who offers her to drink a potion that will put her to sleep for two days, so that everyone will think that she has died. This is exactly what happened, but the news explaining that Juliet’s death was imaginary did not reach Romeo.

Beside himself with grief, having learned about the death of his beloved, he returned to Verona and went to the Capulet crypt, where he met Paris and killed him. And after that he drank poison and died near Juliet. When she woke up, seeing Romeo dead, she immediately killed herself with a dagger. After this, the Montague and Capulet families stopped their senseless war, which led to the death of their beloved children.

Romeo: characteristics

At the very beginning of the work, the author depicts his hero as a completely inexperienced young man who is completely absorbed by love, or rather, a far-fetched passion for Rosalind, an unapproachable and very absurd beauty. Romeo understands his crazy behavior, but still, like a moth, he flies to the fire. Friends do not approve of his choice, because they understand that his passion is artificial, he is bored with the reality around him, and he deliberately invented all this for himself. His soul is still too pure and naive, and she can mistake an ordinary hobby for true love. It must be said that Romeo was an ardent dreamer; the characteristics of his nature indicate that he longs for love, but only in order to establish himself in it. He wants to become a winner over the indifferent and arrogant Rosalind. He thinks that this will help him raise his authority among his friends and grow in his own eyes.

Romeo and Juliet

When he sees sweet Juliet at the ball, all his false feelings dissipate, he immediately forgets about Rosalind. Now his love is genuine, which regenerates and elevates him. After all, by nature he is endowed with a tender and sensitive heart, which senses approaching trouble even before they decide to go to the enemy house of the Capulets for a holiday. He tried to resist this, but it turned out to be useless for him to fight fate, since strong passion still prevailed over Romeo. His characterization states that he is quick-tempered and not ready to come to terms with circumstances. First, he kills Juliet's brother Tybalt out of revenge for the murder of his friend Mercutio, and then he also kills the innocent Paris.

Conclusion

Shakespeare does not show himself to be a moralist here; he does not make his heroes positive or negative. Romeo's appearance doesn't particularly interest him. He shows the tragic path of everyone who cannot curb their destructive passions, which took power over such a bright, vulnerable and sublime soul as Romeo’s.